The Current presents

Death Cab for Cutie

with Jay Som

Doors 6:00 p.m. | Show 7:30 p.m. | All Ages

INFORMATION | TICKETS

Death Cab for Cutie

Formed in Bellingham, WA in 1997, Death Cab for Cutie almost immediately entered the ranks of the era's definitive bands, fueled in large part by the remarkable power of co-founder, vocalist, guitarist, and lead songwriter Benjamin Gibbard's complex, often bittersweet songcraft. The band made their worldwide popular breakthrough with 2003's RIAA Platinum-certified Transatlanticism, later named by NPR as one of "The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings."

Plans, their 2005 Atlantic Records debut release, saw Death Cab for Cutie ascending to even greater heights, earning RIAA platinum certification and a GRAMMY Award nomination for "Best Alternative Album" while spawning the chart-topping singles, "Soul Meets Body" and "I Will Follow You into the Dark," the latter of which was honored with a GRAMMY nod for "Best Pop Performance By Duo Or Group With Vocals." Their following albums — including Narrow Stairs (2008), The Open Door (2009), Codes and Keys (2011), and Kintsugi (2015) — all received various GRAMMY Award nominations, bringing their total career nominations to eight overall.

Death Cab for Cutie's ninth studio album, Thank You for Today, was released in 2018. That album saw the band entering its second decade by both expanding and refining its signature sound, with highlights including lead single, "Gold Rush," which reached #1 on Billboard's "Adult Alternative Songs" chart.

The band continued to affirm their lasting artistic legacy with a wide range of creative activity in the years that followed, including diverse collaborations such as Chance the Rapper's 2019 album track, "Do You Remember (ft. Death Cab for Cutie)," and Tycho & Gibbard's acclaimed 2021 single, "Only Love."

December 2020 saw Death Cab for Cutie release The Georgia EP, initially offered as a 24-hour Bandcamp exclusive in advance of the crucial Georgia runoff elections that ultimately turned the state blue and secured Democratic control of the US Senate. The five-song project — which features covers of iconic artists from the great state of Georgia — raised over $100K for Fair Fight Action, the national voting rights organization founded by Stacy Abrams.

Death Cab for Cutie's 10th studio album, Asphalt Meadows, was released in 2022 via Atlantic Records.

Jay Som

Where, you are almost certainly asking, has Jay Som been?

Six years ago, in 2019, Melina Duterte released Anak Ko, the expansive third album from the project that had quickly grown far beyond its so-called bedroom pop origins into something resembling an actual band. Duterte still wrote and produced that Jay Som record, but her friends now surrounded her, playing parts of their own. But when a shuttered touring industry scrapped Jay Som’s ambitious 2020 plans, Duterte realized she had long needed a reset from the road after several years of constant pivots between touring and writing, anyway. She decided to splurge on herself and her lifelong interest in recording, funneling her government stimulus check into a piece of dream gear she’d repeatedly seen advertised—a vintage Neve console. She committed herself to manuals and online tutorials, peppering experienced friends with questions about becoming more than her own home-recording engineer. Five years later, she’s got a rich résumé of album credits, guest spots alongside the likes of Troye Sivan and beabadoobee, the centerpiece of the I Saw the TV Glow soundtrack, and a Grammy for her work on The Record by boygenius, the band she subsequently joined as a touring member. Yes, Jay Som itself has been on a bit of a break; Duterte, however, has perhaps been busier than ever.

When Duterte reckoned the time had come to revisit Jay Som, she did not pretend to be hidebound by the project’s past. Instead, she let the half-decade of life she’d lived and work she’d done since releasing Anak Ko filter not only into her songs but also her process. The new friends she’d actually had time to make in Los Angeles now that she was off the road—especially Joao Gonzalez (of Soft Glas) and Mal Hauser (a collaborator to Mk.gee and Illuminati Hotties)—became key partners, as Duterte opened her music to others like never before. But she also opened up her music to herself and her memories, writing songs that revisited the sounds of her youth with the benefit of her experiences as a musician, producer, and performer. She was neither shy about her influences nor limited about where they might lead her. And so no previous Jay Som album sounds quite like the new Belong, a gripping 11-song set about self-definition and, well, belonging, that floats between supercharged power-pop hits and hazy ballads, between electronic curiosities and lighters-up anthems. It is a map of the first 31 years of Duterte’s life, all leading to the present that is Belong.